Today a meeting was held
at the request of Assistant Deputy Minister of Health, Wendy
Hill, with some of the family of Frances and Alfred Albo, to
evaluate IHAs implementation of Dr. Ballems
recommendations.

After the meeting, Carol Albo noted that
Although eleven much needed beds have been added in the
area and 15 promised for 2008, we continue to feel patronized.
IHA made piecemeal changes in an attempt to appease public
outrage, rather than in a serious commitment to deliver
reasonable service to seniors.

The issue of distrust by the community
hasnt been resolved, said Jerome Albo, and such
issues as KIRO Manor (a vacant IHA care facility) only add to
this suspicion.

While Jim and Jerome Albo acknowledge that
some positive actions resulted from changes implemented by IHA
following the deaths of their parents, much more needs to be done
to bridge the gap between communities and health authorities. Jim
Albo concluded, The incompassionate and dictatorial methods
of the IHA need to change, in order to bridge this gap.

pressBACKGROUNDER - Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Seniors (SPCS)

Concerned Trail and area citizens formed the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Seniors (SPCS) in August
in answer to public meetings and demonstrations.

In a recent SPCS press release, President
Carol Albo said, While IHA claims to have addressed some of
Dr. Ballem and Martin McMahons recommendations following
the death of Frances Albo, we disagree. For example; three
recommendations vital to SPCS concerns:

Recommendation #5 High Priority that
additional transition beds be opened in the KBH service area. The
purpose of these beds being to offer immediate strategies to
relieve the exigencies arising from the acute, in-patient
pressures.

Recommendation #6 High Priority that
additional resources and spending be committed to further develop
and enhance the range of community resources and services,
particularly in the area of palliative care.

Recommendation #8 Medium Priority that
we (IHA) consider supporting the planning and implementation of
unique community-based solutions, which can assist in meeting the
health challenges which confront the area.

In a News Release March 1, 2006 Minister of
Health George Abbott, stated that more transition and palliative
beds would be established in Trail.

It hasnt happened.

2

But those recommendations were
addressed by the SPCS proposal: 6 palliative beds, 5 respite, 1
urgent assessment and 10 transition beds. The SPCS Transition
Unit answers all those recommendations; it is community formed,
community supported and would be community-based in an
appropriate, economically feasible, already existing facility,
Albo said

Instead, the Trail area has lost resources
and contracted down the palliative services that were available
prior to Dr. Ballems report. Cuts to local Hospice funding
and lack of beds, has seen area palliative patients housed in
hospital wards instead of private rooms.

Newly appointed Chair of the SPCS
Communications Committee, Scott Leyland goes on to note that the
final recommendation of Dr. Ballem was: Proceed with
initiatives to effectively engage the communities with their
health system. However, there was little community
consultation and the resulting discontent led to an External
Operational Review(funded by IHA) which confirmed that the
direction was too dictatorial, without listening to the
front-line workers, nor the community.

Some important results of the external
review were:

1.The problem is not only what is communicated to the
communities but the way it is communicated

2.There is no local control with all decisions made by
the Chief Operating Officer (COO) or by decision makers in
Kelowna

3.Stakeholders perceive the dominant management style
to be oriented toward a command and control approach. Physicians
echoed many of the general comments concerning leadership and
management.

4.All groups spoke of not being heard or respected. Community
stakeholders expressed significant distrust of IH who were widely
seen as operating without regard to local interests.

An experienced cost analyst and people with
backgrounds in engineering volunteered and were appointed by SPCS
to do a fair and open feasibility comparison of combining half
the IHA Wellness/Office with a 22 Bed Transition Unit proposed by
the community for KIRO, using standard costing procedures.

The IHA pretended to take them seriously.
Unfortunately the disrespect, contempt and deception continued

In a recent press release, the IHA notes
they spent hundreds of staff-hours assisting the SPCS in their
study.

But it wasn't until we accidentally
gained access to a full set of drawings, commissioned by the IHA,
prepared by DGBK - Architects in Vancouver, that we became aware
of the full extent of the IHA' s duplicity, notes Bill
Shepherd, member of the SPCS Feasibility Committee. Despite
statements that funding for KIRO had been postponed or put on
hold, the dates on these drawings (Oct 13 for costing/ Nov 21 for
funding) made it very obvious that IHA had gone ahead with their
plans for KIRO. 3
It is rather galling to think that all this tax-payer
money, spent by tax-payer-funded staff on the "hundreds of
staff-hours assisting the SPCS in their study" was for
nothing more than to lay a smokescreen to hide the real IHA
intentions and activities from the public,saidSPCS Feasibility Committee member, Peter Van Iersel.

In its various press releases these past few
days, IHA officials continue to avoid accountability and clarity
by combining project announcements that confuse the public,in an attempt to wear down community resolve.

They have even gone so far as to coach key
local politicians by Speaking Notes aimed at
discrediting the SPCS volunteers expertise and depth of
diligence. One such coaching note asks Trail Mayor Dieter Bogs to
say:

Renovating KIRO to accommodate 22 beds
would cost $6.8-million, not $1.5-million as suggested by the
SPCS .The SPCS report was well meaning, but the very
qualified facilities management staff at IH had a good look and
just say it cant be done. It doesnt leave enough room
for the Wellness Centre, the cost estimates look very low, what
the community was really asking for was additional beds and now
weve got that, I think we should let the IH get on with the
Wellness Centre as quickly as possible.*

*(See attachment: IHA Speaking Notes(Nov.
21)).

How patronizing, said Carol
Albo. These Speaking Notes were dated Nov. 21;
three days before IHA reps (including IHA cost analyst Nicola
Hippertz) sat down with SPCS cost analysts and confirmed the low
estimates as accurate, especially compared to the 6.8 figure used
by IHA.

IHA also confessed to us that
they had never sought other, cheaper office leasing than the
$500,000/yr. they are currently committed to.

Health Minister Abbotts promise that
Trail would get more transition and palliative beds, was ignored
by IHA. Concerned area citizens showed how to obtain these beds
by reasonably renovating KIRO to still incorporate half the
Wellness Centre services. But their proposal was not seriously
considered.